Slow and steady wins the tomato

Drew Lawson wrote: ...

i just put up tomato chunks because they are very versatile in many recipes.

usually the tomatoes last a year or two at the most before they're gone. i've also downsized from more plants because Mom is not cooking as much. nine plants is enough now and i can usually put up 100-150 quarts of tomato chunks.

a good fence is very important here. i have an ok fence which normally keeps the bunnies and deer away and sometimes the bleeping groundhogs will still sometimes raid. :(

songbird

Awesome!

My one Beef Steak plant have about 15 green tomatoes ranging from the size of golf balls to a few the size of a tennis ball. Three not have a reddish flush on them.

I transplanted them from the store in early May and had a freeze come through a mess it up pretty bad. It did eventually recover, but it is only catching up now.

Do you fertilize yours? If so, with what?

-T

Not a lot. My soil is ugly, but generally delivers pretty well. There is a bunch of previous years' mulch mixed in. That may provide something, but certainly not nitrogen at this point. It mostly helps moisture retention.

When I put them in the ground I put some bone meal and blood meal in the bottom of the hole. I assome that mostly helps with shock and early growth.

In the past, I've used some organic glop -- Neptune's Garden or such -- but haven't this year. I misplaced my watering can and haven't shopped for another.

I may yet pick that up for the non-tomatoes that are still pretty small.

Drew Lawson wrote: ...

if you've been doing that for all your transplants and starts then it may be attracting some animal to dig thm up...

raccoons sometimes do that here for starts that i get from the greenhouse because they may use a fertilizer that smells like fish or something else edible to a raccoon.

songbird

I had considered that (and don't yet rule it out), but the digging happened regardless of feeding. The peppers got hit still in the tray, just in peat pots fed with weak miraclegro.

Over the fall/winter I will look at making seedling cages for this.

Whatever does it doesn't pay much attention once things are established.

Drew Lawson wrote: ...

same here. that is why i suspect it is some component of the compost or fertilizer being used.

songbird

That makes sense. I can't imagine miraclegro (used while the seedlings are in the basement) smelling tasty. Then again, I hear that squirrels will chew into anything that smells like propane.

So much for my instincts.